Data is often communicated across communication networks according to the priority assigned to the data, or the source of the data, relative to the priority assigned to other data or sources of data. When a communication link of a network is congested, the volume of data which is to be carried over the communication link may exceed the available bandwidth or throughput of the communication link. In such situations, the priority assigned to each packet of data within the volume of data may be used to determine the order in which the packets may be communicated by the communication link, which may include determining how to queue various data packets for transmission.
A communication network including both a wireless network and a wireline network may use one set of priorities for communicating data packets over the wireless network and another set of priorities for communicating data packets over the wireline network. For example, a CDMA 2000 wireless network may use one set of priorities while the wireline network to which the wireless network is connected, such as the Internet, may use another set of priorities. In the CDMA 2000 wireless network, data packets transmitted from a mobile station may be assigned a quality of service (QoS) priority level based on a level of service selected by the user of the mobile station upon registration of the mobile station with the appropriate packet data service provider. Base station controllers of the wireless network may use the QoS subscription priority assigned to each data packet to prioritize requests on the radio, or air, interface in such areas as admission control, data burst allocation, and MAC (Medium Access Control) state management. In a differentiated services (or “diffserv”) network, such as the Internet, data packets may be assigned a priority represented by a set of standardized diffserv code points, or class selector code points. Like the wireless QoS priority, the wireline priority, represented by the diffserv code points, may correspond with a level of service provided by a service provider for ensuring forwarding of data packets.